A is for Apples!

This may have been our "Last Supper"...
OUTSIDE in the gazebo, that is.

We've had a few glorious weeks of delightfully warm, 
dry days but it will soon end.

We won't be able to use the gazebo for dining much longer.

Cuisine Kathleen has challenged bloggers to come up with a tablescape involving apples for her
"Lets Dish" blog party on Wednesday evening this week.






These are the only dishes I have with apples on them.
  
I should have taken photos at my sister's home when I was there recently...
she has her entire kitchen decorated with an apple theme.
It is Very Cute!




Red waffle-weave placemats & striped extra LARGE napkins for our laps worked great for the meal I was serving.



Hey, Cherry Kay....I finally found my American Whitehall tumblers!!  

They were tucked behind my Napoleon bee glassware,
waaaay back in the back of the cupboard. 
I've been looking for them for months!



I love the weight of these tumblers...
very durable & sturdy. 
They were made in the '60's & are still around.



Some of us had APPLE CIDER & 
others enjoyed APPLE RED soda.



I love the look of the sunshine coming through the textured glass!

I made meatballs in marinara sauce with
some of our fresh tomatoes,
which are all done now.  Boo-Hoo!
I served it over rigatoni pasta for the kids.



They like that shape because it is easy for them to just slide the tines of the fork into the holes.

My husband prefers angel hair pasta,
as it seems lighter to him.

For dessert, I made an apple pie....
mixed the peeled & sliced apples with
3/4 Cup brown sugar & some
Apple Pie Spice 
(forgot to dot with butter)

I piled that luscious sliced fruit really high,
just like my Mom used to do.

She made the 
BEST APPLE PIE in the whole wide world, E.V.E.R!!

I thought I'd get fancy & use my Williams Sonoma cutters to make leaf shapes on the top crust,
to let the steam escape.

I could not get the leaves to separate from the dough without tearing, so I just tipped them upward
prior to baking.

Don't they look pretty?

   Just look at the awful result!!

 

Doesn't it remind you of that painting titled "The Scream" by Evard Munch?


I'm such a failure! 
I bet my Mom is laughing up in Heaven.
It tasted great, though. 
I think I should save this idea for Halloween!

 Thanks for stopping by The Gazebo House today & thanks for all the prayers for my nephew & my nephew's wife, too.

I hope you'll stop over at Kathleen's tonight to see all the fun
APPLE Tablescapes! 
I'll be there as well as over at Yvonne's StoneGable for Tutorials, Tips & Tidbits &
Michael Lee's Rattlebridge Farm for Foodie Friday.
(this pie should be called "Frightful Foodie Friday")

September is National Sewing Month!

Like the title of this post says, September IS National Sewing Month and I've been busy doing just that!
It is great therapy for me...just slightly cheaper than a shrink!


Our family has had a great deal of challenges lately & they take time & energy away from blogging. My older sister's son has been diagnosed with kidney cancer.  His wife has had to take a *family medical leave* from her job at a pizza parlor to care for him.  They have 2 children, one in college & one not yet graduated from high school.  We are worried sick about the bills, since he lost his job last year & they don't have any insurance.   
On top of that, my brother's son's wife has decided to give up her fight against bone cancer.  She has endured chemo & radiation & bone grafts & it is still spreading.
I would greatly appreciate your prayers for both my nephew Keith & my nephew's wife, Rachel, as they deal this awful disease.

My way of dealing with the stress is to SEW!

I finished my "Countdown To Christmas" quilt top &
it is waiting for an opening at my long arm quilting gal, 
so she can work her magic on it.



 I enjoyed making this one very much!  
It was less complicated than my "Indigo Stars" quilt
but you still had to be organized.

I didn't want to use any cream colors in the star points, 
as they would not have provided enough contrast against the white. 

I also, started using the fabric with the larger Christmas words on the centers & thus, had to make sure each one was cut & correctly positioned for proper reading.

That complicated things a wee bit.
 




I also tried not to have a cream colored block in any of the corners of the square outlines, 
as it made them appear not to be completely closed.
Lots to think about!

You can find the free pattern for this happy quilt on the Moda website here: 
Countdown To Christmas Quilt 001

I hunted all over to acquire the needed prints,
since the original quilt was posted several years ago.
Lesson learned...if you love it,
BUY IT when you see it!







I joined the K.I.S.S. Quilt Guild & one of their service projects is to make stockings for our American soldiers for the upcoming holidays.  
The USO fills them with items like candy, chapstick, small books, etc.  
I brought home 2 packs of pre-cut fabrics & had Ms. C. help me assemble them.

She was SEW proud!!

The last time she visited, she even asked me if I had any more for her to work on. 
 That made my heart sing!
 She is such a sweet, generous little angel & loves learning how to sew.

 


This is another of her projects,
 (while not exactly sewing) 
that she had fun making.

Thank you, Lynn for showing us how to make hula skirts out of grocery bags! 

Directions are here: Happier Than A Pig In Mud




I've been working on some cute *Fat Quarter Flowers* to be used as favors at an upcoming luncheon for my sewing friends.





They are very easy to do.
I found the cake pop sticks & the celophane wrappers at JoAnns in the Wilton cake supply areas.


 

Go here to see how to make them:

I Plead Quilty: Fat-quarter-bouquet-tutorial



My other quilt guild, The Memory Makers, create "cough pillow" covers for a local hospital, as their charity project.
The photo, above, shows only a small portion of the ones I've been making.  I think I've done 30 of them so far!

The pillows are used to apply pressure to a patient's surgical site, so that when they cough or sneeze, it doesn't hurt so much.  Patients are much more inclined to take deep breaths & clear their lungs post-op, if they can use these pillows to support their incisions.

I couldn't leave out the dolls!! 

 My friend, Genine has an Etsy site where she sells the most perfect patterns for American Girl dolls.  She truly has some of the clearest directions & methods I have ever seen.  

Genniewren's Patterns on Etsy 

If you like to make doll clothes, I encourage you to visit her site to see all the wonderful styles she has to offer.  Great prices, too AND she carries some little machine embroidery designs just the right size for the doll clothes, too.



 

 Both the dress above & below are made from the same Sorrell pattern.  I just left off the lower ruffle on the ballet dress, below.


    


This should have been a dozen different blog posts but I've found it difficult to spend time on the computer lately.
I also was having problems with my NEW $$$ computer!
Many email addresses did not export & import like they were supposed to & I found also that many were accidentally blocked.  
So, if you have sent me an email lately & I didn't respond (Yvonne?) please try again?  I hope & pray I've got it straightened out now.  *sigh*

Thank you for visiting me at The Gazebo House.  I always feel like I'm playing catch-up, to get around to visiting everyone who takes the time to comment.  I do so appreciate your kind words & will try to return the visit soon...promise!

p.s.  The wedding was LOVELY but this ditzy blonde forgot her camera!!  Relatives have promised to share their photos.  I'm still waiting.  ~~insert rolled eyes~~